all things ‘yum’ and ‘tasty’ in this magic called life

Archive for the ‘Festivals’ Category

Every Diwali, Paati would make khova from 4 litres of milk and divide it into three equal parts – 2 parts for jamun and 1 part for ice cream cake. I don’t remember a Diwali without Jamuns or Ice cream cake at Paati’s place.

The ice cream cake that she would make was of course spectacular, and the jamuns were so gorgeous and delicious – perfectly round sweet clouds that dissolved in your mouth – absolute bliss!

The exact puja procedures are available in CDs and also in the internet. For the Indians staying abroad, I would suggest that during your next trip to India make sure to buy books that explain the puja details very well.

For any puja devotion is most important. Our relationship with God should be one of faith and not fear or guilt. So just go ahead and do the puja with whatever knowledge you have.

May Goddess Lakshmi bestow upon all of us Happiness and Peace! 🙂

I will update with pictures of the Kalasam when I decorate for the puja tomorrow.

Preparing the Kalasam

Fill a pot ( Silver, copper or mud) with water. Put some coins, jewellery, tulsi, saffron and some flowers into the water. Place 5 mango leaves and coconut smeared with turmeric over the pot. You can also use leaves of 5 different flowering plants instead of mango leaves. Tie the Mugam of Ambal on the coconut. Now your kalasam is ready for the puja. You can further decorate the Kalasam with kumkum(Haridra Soornam), Sandal paste ( Kandham) Flowers ( Pushpam) etc.

During the Puja we invoke the presence of 7 holy rivers( Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswathi,Narmada, Sindu, Kaveri) in this order. Later we invoke the Devi and perform the Aaradanai and Archanai.

On the next day after punar puja the water in the kalasam is distributed to all family members(Theertham) and some water is sprinkled all over the house. Rest of the water is poured into Tulsi plant. The coins can be deposited in Hundi of any temple we visit.

A big thanks to all my blogger friends who unfailingly leave their comments, though I am unable to visit any of your blogs these days. I will be back blog hopping only after the second week of February. 🙂

Pongal is the harvest festival. Farmers celebrate the festival to thank nature for the rich harvest. The festival is celebrated on the first day of Thai month (Thai Maasa pirappu). Pongal as a festival is celebrated widely with Tamils irrespective of religion. People gather in big grounds. They build large stoves with bricks and use fire wood to light the flame. Pongal is prepared in large decorated earthen pots. At home we prepare pongal in Vengalapanai (bronze pot)

Decorating the panai

A turmeric pod, a small banana and a small piece of sugarcane are tied to the neck of the pot. Shaivaites and Vaishnavaites decorate the pot with Thiruneer( Vibhudi) and Thiruman, Shree Swarnam respectively.

The next day banana and sugarcane are offered to the cow along with some sarkkarai pongal. The turmeric pod is used by the ladies to make a paste for applying on their face.

Ingredients

Rice – 1 and 1/2 cup

Moong dal – 1/2 cup

Milk – 1 and 1/2 litre

Jaggery – 3 cups

Cardamom – 6nos

Saffron leaves – a few

Ghee – 4 tablespoons

Cashew – 2 table spoons

Dry grapes – 2 table spoons

Method

Wash the rice and moong dal, drain well and keep aside.

Boil milk in the decorated vengalapanai. When the milk boils and reaches the rim of the panai and slightly over flows, add the washed rice.

Allow to cook over medium to low flame till the rice is soft. This takes around an hour. Add hot water or milk if required.

Add grated jaggery, mix well and cook for another 15 minutes.

Add powdered cardamom. Mix the saffron leaves in warm milk and add to the pongal.

Garnish with cashews and dry grapes fried in ghee.

My previous post with the Vengala Panai has attracted a lot of queries on why there’s a banana, why is a sugarcane piece tied, where the turmeric is and so on. I’ll write a separate post on about why banana, sugarcane, turmeric and so on are used during festivals.

All festivals celebrated anywhere in the world are for giving us respite from the routine. Just to stop for a while and enjoy the beauty of life. A few months back a friend of mine said that she hated festivals as it meant following some rituals like having a head bath, waking up early in the morning, cleaning the house a few days in advance, elaborate cooking etc, etc. She felt frustrated as she was always forced by her MIL and could never see any joy in festivals! Anything thrust upon us forcefully becomes a burden.

Thankfully I had no such bitter experiences. Though I too follow all the rituals, I do it on my own accord and that makes the huge difference! Festival means holiday for hubby and children! Cooking at a leisurely pace, dressing up kids with lovingly designed clothes, visiting friends , inviting some for lunch or dinner, exchanging pleasantries with all your loved ones atleast over phone, and so many more lovely things to look forward to on a festival day!

Some times I am not able to follow all the rituals associated with a festival. I still enjoy without any feeling of guilt! After all we are humans! My suggestion to one and all is, just let your hair down and relax and enjoy! That’s what festivals are all about! 🙂

I prepared a simple feast for Thiru Karthigai and this is my entry for Traditional feast hosted by Meeta of What’s For Lunch Honey! Thanks Meeta for hosting this wonderful event! 🙂 Though a proper traditional meal has more items in the menu, I cooked only a few. With only three of us, I had to limit the no of items.

In older days food was served in plantain leaves as it was available in plenty and also people had to find some use for these leaves, instead of letting them go waste. The tip of the leaf should be to the left hand side of the diner. On festival days a teaspoon of sugar and a banana is served in the left corner of the leaf. Rice is always accompanied by plain dal.

Urad dal bhonda

This is a slight variation to the urad dal vadas. Prepare the batter as you do for vadas. Add a few flakes of coconut, roughly crushed peppercorns and chopped curry leaves. Shape them to small balls and fry in hot oil.

Suyian

Ingredients

Grated coconut – 1 cup

Grated jaggery – 1/2 cup

Cardamom – 1 no

Maida – 2 tablespoons

Oil – 100ml

Method

In a heavy bottomed pan, mix jaggery, coconut and 2 tablespoons water and cook on a medium flame, stirring continously.

Take off the flame once the jaggery melts and blends with the coconut. Add cardamom powder and allow to cool. This is the poornam.

Mix maida with some water to a thick paste. Make balls out of the poornam, coat with maida paste and fry in hot oil.

As the poornam is already cooked only the outer covering needs to be cooked. The balls will be white when hot. As it cools the suyian will turn brown as the outer covering will soak the jaggery syrup from the poornam. This is the main reason for making the outer coating with a soft flour.

Today is Dhanteras! Happy Dhanteras to all!!:) May The Goddess Shower Her choicest Blessing On all!!

A big THANKS to my visitors for leaving thanks message after successfully trying my recipes for the festival!:) Soon I will post the names of my non blogger fans who repeatedly visit my blog and leave their valuable comments!

A big HUGS and THANKYOU to my blogger friends who unfailingly leave their valuable comments!:)These comments are very encouraging and gives happiness beyond measure!:)

After Diwali I will post only three recipes per week. I am planning to visit all the blogs and try my favourite recipes!:)With out any further delay I will give you the recipe for my famous mixture!

My mothers mixture is very famous for the colour and taste! I learnt to prepare following smallest instructions from her. I have been preparing this mixture every deepavali since 25 years. Hope all my visitors find the method easy to follow! Fry the savouries following the sequence below for easy preparation and best results.

1 cup = 125ml. Total oil required for the quantities I have mentioned will be around 300 ml.

Omapodi (Sev)

Ingredients

Kadalai maavu (besan) – 1 cup

Rice flour – 1/4 cup

Ghee – 2 teaspoons

Salt – a pinch

Hing – a pinch

Oil for deep frying

Method

Heat oil in a kadai on a medium flame. Mix the ingredients for sev with a little water to form a smooth batter. The consistency should be between idli batter and chapathi dough.

Fill the sev press with batter and press into hot oil. Reduce the flame to low. Cook both sides till the sound subsides. Drain well and repeat the procedure with the remaining batter.

Keep the flame high while pressing the sev and reduce the flame to medium or low while cooking. This will ensure a golden colour to your mixture.

Ribbon Pakoda

Ingredients

Kadalai maavu (besan) – 3/4 cup

Rice flour – 1/2 cup

Ghee – 2 teaspoons

Salt – a pinch

Hing – a pinch

Oil for deep frying

Method

Mix the ingredients for the ribbon pakoda with little water and make the batter while the last omapodi is being fried.

Fill the ribbon pakoda press with the batter and prepare the pakodas following same procedure like omapodi.

Drain well and break into small pieces. Mix with the omapodi.

Aloo chips(sticks)

Ingredients

Potato – 2 medium sized

Use the same oil to fry.

Method

Wash peel and cut the potato into thin fingers as shown in the picture.

Keep in water with a pinch of turmeric for 5 minutes. Drain and spread on a dry cotton towel.

Fry in hot oil stirring continously. Keep the flame between medium to low so that the chips does’nt become dark.

Drain and remove from oil when the sound subsides.

Maida diamonds

Ingredients

Maida – 3/4 cup

Ghee – 2 teaspoons

Salt – a pinch

Continue frying in the same oil.

Method

Mix maida, ghee and salt with little water to make a thick dough.

Roll into thin rounds and cut into diamonds with a zigzag cutter.

Fry in hot oil till done. Drain and remove from oil.

Cashew nuts- 1 cup

Fry the cashew nuts in a steel strainer with handle as shown in picture or rub with little ghee and MW high for 2 minutes stirring in between.

Groundnuts – 1 cup

Fry the ground nuts in a steel strainer with handle as shown in picture or rub with little ghee and MW high for 3 minutes stirring in between.

Curry leaves- 2 twigs

Wash and wipe the curry leaves. Fry in oil using a steel strainer with handle.